More than Sacagawea's Husband

Toussaint Charbonneau Was An Interpreter For Lewis and Clark

Apr 3, 2008

Toussaint Charbonneau is usually mentioned only as Sacagawea's husband by historians and scholars. In fact, he lived a full, eventful, and often unscrupulous life.

History remembers Toussaint Charbonneau as the husband of Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman idealized as a guide and interpreter for Lewis and Clark. Charbonneau’s story starts long before he encountered Lewis and Clark; it begins with an account of his skulduggery in Canada.

Charbonneau began his working life as an employee of the North West Company and first appears in writing in the journal of John MacDowell in 1793, working at Pine Fork on the Assiniboine River. MacDowell’s journal mentions Charbonneau casually in entries from 1793 to 1795. In an entry dated May 30, 1795, Charbonneau’s character is illuminated when McDowell writes that Charbonneau "was stabbed...in the act of committing a Rape upon her Daughter by an old Saultier woman.. – a fate he highly deserved for his brutality."

Charbonneau left his job after the attempted rape and became a trader and interpreter. He settled in a Hidatsa village on the Knife River.. There in late 1803 or early 1804 he married two teenaged Shoshone women, captured by the Hidatsa as children. One was Sacagawea, and the other may have been called Otter Woman.

In 1804, Charbonneau had contracts with two traders, Larocque and McKenzie from the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company, as an interpreter. When Lewis and Clark realized the influence of the Hidatsa in the region, and that the Corps needed horses from the Shoshone to cross the Rocky Mountains, Charbonneau saw an opportunity. Juggling his responsibilities with Larocque and McKenzie, he managed to sign on with the Corps of Discovery, along with Sacagawea, as an interpreter.

Captain Meriwether Lewis didn’t respect Charbonneau, made clear in a journal entry in which he calls him "a man of no particular merit," although he does concede Charbonneau did the job he was hired to do. Clark, however, seemed fond of the Charbonneaus, especially Sacagawea and her infant son, Jean-Baptiste.

Much is written of the journey to the Pacific and back. On their return to Fort Mandan in 1806, Charbonneau received his payment and a letter from William Clark inviting him and his family to come to St.Louis. Clark promised to set them up as farmers and offered to educate Jean-Baptiste.

Charbonneau chose to remain in the Hidatsa village then, but in the fall of 1809, he, Sacagawea and Jean-Baptiste traveled to St. Louis on a river barge. Like the enlisted men of the Corps, he received a grant of 320 acres of land.

Neither Charbonneau was happy in St. Louis. Toussaint hated farming and Sacagawea missed the Hidatsa. In spring, 1811, Charbonneau signed on with the Missouri Fur Company and headed north with Sacagawea, leaving Jean-Baptiste with William Clark. Clark eventually became the legal guardian of the boy.

Charbonneau continued interpreting and trading. He never established a good reputation; among other misdeeds, in 1814 he and Edward Rose, a mountain man, bought some Arapahoe women from the Shoshone and sold them along the upper Missouri. Historians believe he was tolerated by the whites in the region only because of his relationship with Clark. When Clark died in 1839, Charbonneau lost his position as an interpreter for the Indian Bureau.

Most of what is known of Charbonneau’s later years comes from a variety of journals. He remained an opportunist with a fondness for young Indian wives; there are records of marriages with at least 5 very young Indian women, including two 14-year-olds.

Toussaint Charbonneau most likely died in 1842 or 1843 at the age of about 86. In 1843 his estate was settled by his son Jean-Baptiste.

Burns, Ken and Dayton Duncan, 1988: Lewis and Clark: The Corps of Discovery; Pimlico publishing.

Jenkinson, Clay, 2004: A Vast and Open Plain: Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in North Dakota, 1804-1806; State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck.

Schneider, Mary Jane, 1990: North Dakota Indian Heritage; University of North Dakota Press, Grand Forks.

The copyright of the article More than Sacagawea's Husband in American History is owned by Lori L. Orser. Permission to republish More than Sacagawea's Husband in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.